This new listing in Fort Greene from Brooklyn Properties has been nagging at us since we saw it online yesterday. Given how much carping we do about the importance of historic details, you’d think we’d be digging this place. But we’re not. Is it the light fixtures? They’re a bummer but can easily be changed. The landscaping? We could do without the amoeba-shaped design but that’s not it either. What’s really bugging us, we realize, are the floors. The combination of what appear to be new floors and what appears to be a very glossy finish clashes, in our opinion, with the true character of the house. We love our creaky old floors that we pieced back together with salvaged wood–they have an effect upon the feel of the house that can’t be gotten with new wood. We’ve spoken to a handful of brownstone owners over the past year who tell us the biggest regret of their renovation was using new flooring. Anyway, all these things are fixable–even the floors–and the details (moldings, plasterwork, fireplaces, etc.) are in great shape so it’s really not that big a big deal, but it just feels like the house lost something in the process of getting its “mint” renovation. And for $1.85 million in Fort Greene, character is one thing we’d be unwilling to do without.
Mint 2-Family [Brooklyn Properties]